Edson Medical Centre

01/28/2026

Locum Physician Available!

Wednesday-Friday this week we have a locum doctor available to see patients for pre-booked appointments. Please call 780-723-5531 ext 1 to book an appointment!

01/22/2026

Despite recent posts on some third party sites, Edson Medical Centre is NOT currently hiring for any positions. We recommend caution to anyone entering their personal information on these sites as these postings are fake. EMC will post here on our page when we next have any position openings.

10/10/2025

Important Update: Walk-In Clinic Registration Process

We’ve recently updated the registration process for our Walk-In Clinic following a successful trial period. The clinic remains open Monday through Thursday, but here’s what’s new:

You can now register anytime after we open at 8:30 AM until all spots are full.

After registering, you’ll be assigned a specific time to return—no need to hang around! However, your return time is an appointment estimate and there may still be a potential wait.

Please ensure you return at your scheduled time. If you miss your appointment, it may be forfeited and a "no show" fee may apply before you can use the Walk-In Clinic again.

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation as we continue to improve your experience.

09/23/2025

PLEASE NOTE: if you are a patient who uses Freedom mobile please contact them to let them know that landline Telus phones (including the clinic phones!) cannot reach your phone! This will cause them to change a setting and within 24 hours, you will should be reachable again.

06/09/2025

Good Morning Edson & Yellowhead County,
As summer approaches, we want to update you on physician availability in Edson. Two doctors are leaving at the end of June, one is moving to part-time, and two others will be away for training most of the summer—training they've waited nearly a year for. This leaves just four physicians available for hospital and ER shifts, the minimum needed to keep them running.

As a result, clinic coverage will be limited. Most doctors will be working 4–6 hospital/ER shifts weekly, leaving them only 1–2 days—or sometimes none—for clinic appointments.

We're doing our best to keep the walk-in clinic open Monday-Thursday. Any closures will be shared on our page.

We continue working with AHS to recruit new physicians and are hopeful help is on the way, though we don’t yet have a start date.

We understand this situation is frustrating and appreciate your patience as we work through these challenges.

04/27/2025

Congratulations to Dr. Oishi on his nomination!

Dr. Roderick Oishi is considered a local legend around Edson.

Whether he is performing surgery, recruiting new health professionals, or even modelling in a fashion show for an upcoming healthcare fundraiser, Dr. Oishi has deep ties to his community.

“Dr. Oishi is a pillar in our healthcare community,” writes Brianna Canning, who nominated the physician for a 2025 RhPAP Rhapsody Physician Award.

“He has chosen to stay in Edson for the last 27 years, building his medical practice, surgical skills, and family.

“He chose to stay through hard times, low physician numbers, and recent struggles the healthcare system is facing.”

Dr. Jo Ann Robinson says her colleague has been “an invaluable mentor, consultant, and peer” over the past 15 years.

Learn more about Dr. Roderick Oishi: https://loom.ly/WmHc7BU

Town of Edson

08/06/2024

Edson and Surrounding Area,

We know that there has been a lot of discussion about the doctor situation in Edson with the recent departure of multiple doctors and with the doctor numbers in Hinton being in the news quite frequently. We wanted to give an accurate update on the situation here in Edson:

We currently have 11 family doctors who live in the community and are actively seeing patients in the clinic. 8 of us also work in the Emergency Department and take care of patients in the hospital including continuing care. 4 of those 8 also deliver babies. One also does minor surgeries and one is an anesthetist. 5 doctors have left the community in the past 12 months. In 2019, we had 16 active doctors in our community, with almost all working in the clinic and hospital.

We understand it is frustrating not having a family physician or not being able to easily get in to see your family physician. We are actively encouraging Alberta Health Services to recruit more physicians to Edson, needing another 5-7 doctors. What we have found however is that Rural Alberta is not a high interest place for new physicians currently, especially with many healthcare changes that have occurred in the past 5 years. In attempt to prevent the ER and hospital from being closed, our current doctors are working between 10-16 ER shifts and 1 week of hospitalist (taking care of admitted patients) per month with physicians frequently working up to 14 days straight at a time. This leaves, on average, 2 clinic days per week to see patients. Additionally, each doctor also usually has to devote 1/2 of one of those clinic days each week to seeing patients in the Walk-In clinic. We are also a teaching site for the University of Alberta, training medical students and residents doctors.

We are trying to increase access by having locum physicians come. They only stay in the community for a short time, so cannot become your family doctor and are a temporary solution only. However, they are also in high demand and can be hard to book for our community. While our situation is slightly more stable than Hinton’s, our current situation is not sustainable. We appreciate your understanding and hope this makes it more clear why our current doctors are unable to take on any more regular clinic patients at this time.

For anyone wanting more information on what our community can do to help, we recommend:
Visiting: https://patientsfirst.ca/
Contacting the MLA for our area, Martin Long, as healthcare is a provincial issue: https://unitedconservativecaucus.ca/martin-long/

05/02/2024

We have recently been made aware of text messages appearing to come from an EMC phone number stating that "Your family doctor is leaving, please contact us urgently to discuss". These are NOT being sent by the Edson Medical Centre and may be a scam. Please do not call any other numbers listed in the message or click any links.

As a reminder, we only contact patients by text message with appointment reminders. If you are ever unsure about a text you have received from the Edson Medical Centre, please call us directly at 780-723-5531.

10/03/2023

Reminder that starting October 1, all appointment cancellations/changes must be done at least 24 hours before your scheduled appointment time. We do not accept voicemail cancellations. Cancellations/changes with less then 24 hours notice will be subject to a missed appointment fee.

07/18/2023

***Please be aware that Edson Medical Centre text/call appointment reminders are currently not going out to Telus customers.***
Telus is aware of the issue but have not been able to give us a timeline of when this will be fixed. Please make sure you write down/put in your calendar your appointment details. If you are unsure about your next appointment date or time, please call the front desk at 780-723-5531.

11/28/2022

EMC is excited to finally announce that a trial Walk-In Clinic will be starting on December 5, 2022! This has been quite a few months in the planning and we hope this will help alleviate some barriers to accessing medical care in our community.

The Walk-In Clinic will be open Monday to Thursday with in-person registration beginning at 1pm. It will be first come, first served with no pre-booked appointments. The Walk-In Clinic is open to anyone with valid healthcare. There is a limit on the amount of appointments available daily; a sign outside will state when the clinic is full.

We would like to acknowledge that this is a new adventure for our clinic and there will likely be unexpected hiccups along the way. We thank everyone in advance for their understanding. Please also remember that verbal and/or physical abuse of staff or physicians will not be tolerated.

02/03/2021

Good day everyone! We are aware of recent high call volumes and difficulty to get through to our receptionists, especially in the morning!

Please call our appointment line - 780 723 5531 - and simply follow the voice prompts.

At times of high call volumes, you will be on hold for a few minutes before speaking to a receptionist... please be patient! 😁